Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Bread Machine Battle!

The bread machine waged a war with me. It was a short skirmish. One easy google search and another round of bread ingredients later and... victory was ours. :)

Yes, we have a new addition to our family. My parents graced us with a bread machine for our anniversary, and since I'm all for the wholeness of foods nothing could be more exciting than the prospect of making our own bread.

The days of deciphering the mystery labels on store-bought varieties and compromising somehow or other are over. I may even get fancy and begin soaking/sprouting my grains, as this recipe suggests. :)

Essentially when I make my own bread I know what goes into it, it tastes and smells fabulous, and it bakes itself! What more can a busy plant-based household ask for?

As you can see, the first attempt was a bit of a flop. I know bread making is insanely precise, and it's likely that my efforts to swap out animal products and refined grains from the product recipe book landed me with a homemade brick. It tasted just fine, but it was 100% dense because it pretty much didn't rise. For three hours I kept peeking into the viewing window like an impatient kid wondering why that stupid lump wasn't changing! It was a sad sight...

Yeah... not what I had in mind.

Unwilling to waste any more precious bread ingredients with my own experimentation, I went online to find a vegan bread machine recipe and this little gem popped right up: Whole Wheat Machine Bread!

The low-down looked promising and the challenge to prevail over the new bread maker became way too tempting. Unfortunately for Zach this meant mandating that we gobble down the brick bread as quickly and creatively as possible so I could tackle round #2. :)

Yay! A legitimate loaf of bread! :)

Thankfully for my dwindling baking pantry and Zach's dietary variety the next loaf was a SUCCESS! I wanted it to have a bit more volume, but now that I know the basics for this recipe work I can try experimenting with more yeast, warmer water, soaking overnight, etc.